You're All I Need
by strikingtwelve
Summary: The war is over. The planet saved. Plenty of casualties but that's the usual. Just about everything is exactly as it should be. Good ol' Earth lives to fight another day. Peace restored. An impostor enslaved and exterminated. And now an unconscious young woman with pale features hardly recognizable even to his keen blue eyes. (Sort of tag scene to The Zygon Invasion/Inversion)


The war was over. The planet saved. Plenty of casualties but that was the usual. Just about everything was exactly as it should be. Good ol' Earth lives to fight another day.

Peace restored.

An _impostor_ enslaved and exterminated.

And now an unconscious young woman with pale features hardly recognizable even to his keen blue eyes.

He tried to rouse her. That fell through seconds in. Felt for a pulse - _bless the gods she's still alive._ Shouted her name. Cried a bit. Apolgized, apologized, then apologized again just for good measure.

 _He should have known from the start._

Trivial pursuit. She _hated_ trivial pursuit. Only one time had she played, ending in a fury of frustrated grumbles and cheating accusations because of course he had won. Won was an understatement, and not even the one she had focused on. Simply the fact that she _utterly miserably_ lost.

She hated that game.

 _He should have known._

The signs were all there, he knew. Eyes a bit too far apart, nose - well her nose always looked a tad funny. No stench - anymore than usual that is, but that voice. Pitched not quite right. First rising then lowering, faltering into a higher tone than his Clara had spoken in for a long while. It was a miserable copy. Underaged, didn't capture her beauty just right.

 _Why didn't he notice?_

The TARDIS was too far and he could feel her slipping away. Mere minutes later and he would have been far too late. The Zygons only kept their copies alive just long enough to gather suitable information to allow them to succeed in a properly well-educated replacement. Bonnie had come too close for comfort in that sense. Minutes... just minutes more and he would have been too late.

His arms were heavy with the burden of guilt and fatigue. More apologies were uttered as he resulted in grasping Clara's wrist and dragging her out into the sunlight. Maybe he shouldn't have taken so much time to find that perfect patch of soft, green grass, but he did.

The moment he looked at her face in the heated light he had to look away.

 _He should have known._

Two fingeres pressed against her throat again and his breath hitched. She was slipping away and he didn't know what to do. Wondered if he should say something because maybe... just maybe she could still hear him, trapped in her own expiring mind. It wasn't too late. He could tell her-

 _Oh, she knows._

What the _hell_ was he doing? This wasn't him. He was the Doctor. Right there in that moment, he'd never felt more helpless to the title. But he was the Doctor. Not the President. Not the Predator. He was a simple man with hopeless needs. No. Not needs. One need. Just one. One necessity to his seemingly meaningless life. One need. And he was losing her.

"You think you're immortal." He surprised himself with a level and strong voice. Maybe he was convincing himself that she could make it out of this... climb right out of the edge of hell. A spark of hope and he kept talking. "You humans. Always so fragile at first, then you get braver. And braver and braver until you think that you couldn't _possibly_ die. Always dodging bullets, escaping by a fraction, hanging by a thread and you always make it out alive. Until one day you don't." Clara's chest hitched as breaths were on the verge of dissapating. But he liked to fantasize that maybe she was waking. "Come on! I've never traveled with someone so _hot and hard-headed,_ so stubborn and prideful. Besides myself that is. On a good day. Clara Oswald you are _not_ leaving me like this. Not like this. _This is not the day._ "

Words weren't magic. They didn't work like they did in films. A simple _I love you_ won't bring a comotose around. True love's kiss won't spark a heart back into life.

But lying here in his arms was an Oswald. A magnificent family with a long ranging history of _fighting back._ She was fighting. He couldn't see it. Couldn't hear it. But deep in that dwindling body of hers Clara Oswald was fighting. Working her way home. She just needed something to latch onto

"You think you're immortal." He repeated. "And this day always comes. For everyone on the planet _this day_ comes at some point. And I don't mean death. No ma'am, I _certainly_ do not mean death. This is your reality check. This is the hand coming to smack some sense into that wide face. This is your wake up call." Hands already tangled in her hair from shaky carressing he crashed a pair of trembling lips against hers. Only held it an instant. But in a mere second he savored the taste of her mouth; the creases on her lips, and above all, the way they pursed in a desperate response. "So for the love of God, _WAKE UP._ "

He heard ripping and looked down to see blades of grass yanked from the ground in two no longer lifeless fists. Eyes shot open. Chest heaved with a strangled gasping inhale and a heart started to thud.

The Doctor didn't cry out with joy. He didn't tear, didn't tremble, he laughed. Laughed that breathless song of triumph and held onto everything he held dear. Everything still proved to be a singular term. Everything he needed. Everythind he wanted. It was all right there wrapped up in one little human body.

He was still laughing as a firm hand pushed her hair back from her damp face, a delicate thumb cleared away the smeared lipstick around her mouth. Eyes shinning with joy, and not to any surprise he had to swallow hard before managing a simple, " _Welcome back._ "

She was weak but fierce and determined. Couldn't quite talk yet and struggled to steady her breathing, but in those eyes were everything that words could never effectively communicate. It went so... so far beyond, but summed up, put into a simple term she was crying _thank you._

His laughter died down into a smile that went straight from one ear to the other. "Give yourself a minute." He said. "Then we'll get the hell out of here."

The tip of her tongue slid between her tightly pressed lips almost in an experimental style. They parted and she tried to speak but only resulted a grunt and the Doctor's growing laugh.

"I must say you've never been more attractive."

Her eyes slid closed and her lips pulled into a sadistic smile. Perfervid determination caused her face to twist as she braced to sit up.

"Aren't you listening? Give yourself a moment. We're not in any rush." It wasn't as much his words as it was the cold fingertips stroking her brow that caused her to comply, albeit not without a roll of her eyes beneath their shielding lids. Her tongue tested her lips again and the Doctor's hearts picked up a pace as she opened her eyes. Surely she wouldn't remember - her eyes shut again and he was oddly relieved. Her previously hitching chest was slowing into a sturdy, steady pace. She was falling asleep. The Doctor smiled.

"Kate's got one of her men to drive us to the TARDIS." He slipped a hand under Clara's back to sit her up. The tightening of her closed eyes and the tension in her muscles didn't go unnoticed but he didn't slow his movements until she slumped with exhaustion against his shoulder. "After that you can nap as long as you want. Seriously, take your time. Don't need any cranky comments on my bedside manner from you, thanks."

Her lips twitched again into a sleepy almost-smile but contorted as she groaned with the harsh movement of being lifted into his arms. "Sorry, sorry. Short walk. Hang onto me."

Weak hands clung joint to one lapel of his jacket; her head lulled forward and bumped against his chest, causing a hiss of discomfort at first but fading into a content sigh as she rested there to listen to his hearts thud away.

Instead of sitting in the passenger seat where he was invited the Doctor slid into the back of the vehicle so Clara could have her own comfy place to rest right at his side. To be expected she couldn't sit up without assistance. "It's a bit of a drive. Go on and sleep." He insisted. "I'll wake you when we-"

"Doctor." It was the first thing she'd said and it caught him off guard. Her head rolled against his shoulder but her hand snaked up his body until her fingertips could reach his lips. He crossed his eyes and stared down at the appendage, borderlining mortified as they traced a little pattern on his mouth then lowered again. He could hear her laughing.

That little giggle was strained but light and very much a sign of her liveliness all the same.

"Did you kiss me?"

So many words and thoughts had gone unsaid but remained very _out there_ for so long that he wasn't even the slightest bit flustered at her conclusion. He didn't verbally respond but he smiled. And that was enough for her.


End file.
